The present invention relates to a safety system for continuously checking the integrity of a railway train which comprises a head locomotive followed by a plurality of entrained vehicles, and which is provided with a pneumatic braking system including a general duct which extends along the entire train.
The object of the invention is to provide an improved system which allows continuous testing of the integrity of a railway train, in particular a very long railway train. A further object of the invention is to provide a system which further allows the emergency safety braking of two or more parts into which the train may possibly become separated.
This and other objects are achieved according to the invention with a system having the characteristics defined in the following claims.
According to a first aspect of the invention, the system comprises:
an electrical supply line which extends along the entire train from the locomotive at the head to the vehicle at the tail; and
head apparatus and tail apparatus installed on the head locomotive and the tail vehicle respectively, and connected to the ends of the said electrical supply line; and in which
the head apparatus comprises a first DC voltage supply operable to apply to the said line a first DC voltage having a predetermined value;
a detector connected to the said line and operable to detect the presence on the line of a signal having predetermined characteristics, and to generate an alarm upon loss of the said signal on the line;
the tail apparatus comprising:
a signal generator having the said predetermined characteristics, coupled to the electrical supply line, and
a DC/DC converter the input of which is connected to the said line and the output of which is connected to the said signal generator to provide to this latter a supply voltage derived from that generated by the first supply source of the head apparatus;
the system being such that an interruption of the train capable of causing an interruption of the said line is able to cause a deactivation of the signal generator of the tail apparatus which can be detected and signalled by the detector of the head apparatus.
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description given purely by way of non-limitative example with reference to the attached drawings, in which: